A Drop in the Ocean
by WanderingWaves
Summary: Heath's perspective of "Dreams and Dramas", episode 12 of season 1. I changed it a little bit and twisted the ending too! Please review! Dedicated to BlackBeautifly who requested another Heath and Fly fanfiction.


A Drop in the Ocean

I started down the stairs of Solar Blue into the kitchen, groggily as always. Anna and Perri were running back and forth as Matt and Edge sat at the table and Bec sat perched on the counter.

"Whoa," I laughed, "What's going on?"

"We're organizing," said Anna. "It's Fly's birthday, remember?"

I snorted. "Of course I remember."

_That explains it, _I thought. All this hustling and bustling was because of Fly's fifteenth birthday. Everybody at Solar Blue loved her. She was the youngest, the sweetest, and everyone thought of her like a little sister. That's not the way I thought of her though, not at all. Since the beginning of our Solar Blue year, Fly and I had been great, if not best mates. Recently, I'd been noticing that I didn't think of Fly entirely as a friend anymore. I thought of her in a slightly different way.

"Where is she anyway?" I asked, shaking the thoughts from my head.

"She's on the balcony doing revisions," said Bec.

I nodded and started towards the door. "I want to wish her happy birthday."

"Yeah, I'll come too," said Matt, getting up.

"Guys, wait," Anna called. "Let's get the plan straight, hey?"

"Whatever you say, Captain Peterson," I laughed.

Matt whacked my shoulder. "Alright Anna, shoot."

"So, we need to get Fly out of the house for at least a few hours so I can plan the party. Heath, I'm going to leave you in charge of that. If anyone can get her away from those revisions, you can."

I bowed, jokingly.

"You're planning to throw a party by yourself?" Matt asked.

Anna ignored him. "Think you can handle it?" she asked me.

"Easy," I responded. "I've already got something up my sleeve."

She nodded. "The rest of you need to help him while I get things set up."

We all agreed…except Matt.

"Anna, why don't I stay and help you? Planning a party on your own can be hard." He said, matter-of-factly.

"What time do you need her out of the house?" I asked, interrupting.

"An hour or so?" Anna asked.

"It's a big job, but I think I can handle it." I sat down at the table with Edge, Bec, and Perri while Matt argued with Anna and went over my idea for the day.

When the plans were set in place, Edge, Bec, and I started up the stairs as Perri waited outside.

"Alright," I said when we approached her room. "Remember the plan."

With that, we burst through the door, taking Fly by surprise.

"Do you mind?" she said, impatiently, "I'm trying to get changed!"

Bec and Edged laughed and moved over to Fly, holding her arms.

"Hey!" I'm not even dressed yet!" she whined.

"Oh, stop struggling Fly. You look perfect as you are." I said, tying a bandana over her eyes. I meant it.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked us, as we led her down the stairs.

"You'll have to wait and see!" laughed Bec.

I could almost hear Fly rolling her eyes and pretending she wasn't excited about where we were going. Perri and Edge lead her onto the bus and Bec and I met up with Anna and Matt to discuss what was happening.

"Have her back in three hours." Anna said.

Matt shook his head. "Make it four. You always should give yourself extra time."

Anna glared at him.

"Okay, okay, just trying to help." He smiled and put his hands up defensively.

Anna rolled her eyes. "Have her back in _four_ hours."

"Can do," I responded, and gestured to Bec for us to get on the bus.

I sat down in the seat across from Fly, and Bec took a seat next to her.

"Is someone going to tell me what's going on?" she asked, half-laughing.

"Sorry Fly, you're just going to have to wait and see."

Fly smiled and shook her head. I couldn't help but notice how pretty she looked in her simple blue tank top and board shorts, despite the scowl that now lined her face.

We led her off the bus, onto a sun-drenched beach with a raging swell.

"Well Fly, I hope this makes up for before." I reached up, and untied the white bandana that shielded her eyes. "Happy birthday, Fly."

"Happy birthday, Fly!" the other echoed.

Her face lit up.

"So, what do you think?" I asked, putting my hand on her shoulder.

"What do I think? I-" she began, but trailed off, staring up at me.

I eyed her. "Fly?"

"Uh, it's nice, quite nice!" she stuttered, and then broke eye contact with me to grab her board and run down the beach, followed by Edge, Bec and Perri.

I watched her fall into the blue water and paddle out. Something wasn't right. Why was she acting so strange?

"You coming, mate?" Edge called from the shore.

"Yeah!" I decided to ignore it, and ran to the waves.

The swell was amazing. When I wasn't on a wave, I sat on my board, watching the four of them milk every move they could from the water.

"Yeah Fly!" I yelled, watching her freestyle.

She smiled at me, but it wasn't the normal Fly smile I knew.

After hours of some of the best surfing we've ever done, we started up the beach towards the bus stop benches.

"Hey Fly," I called to her. "Your birthday's not over yet. You're getting a foot massage on the way home." I winked and started up the steps.

I sank down in the seat next to Edge.

"Well, that was a success, was it not?"

He rolled his eyes.

"Admit it Edge, I give the best birthday presents."

"Oh, of course Heath," he mocked. "I've always wanted the ocean for my birthday."

"Eh, the ocean is the cure, my friend," I laughed.

I heard the bus doors close and the motor start.

"Heath!" Bec said, leaning over the seat. "What's Fly doing?"

I sat up and looked out the window. The bus began moving, but Fly stood where I had left her; beside the benches, board under her arm.

"Fly!" I yelled, sticking my head out the window. "What are you doing?"

"I'll be fine!" she yelled back. "I'll catch the next bus!"

Fly faded as the bus turned a corner.

"What's up?" asked Perri.

"She reckons she'll take the next bus or something." I said, sinking back into my seat.

"What? Why?" asked Bec."

"I have no idea. She's been acting weird with me all day, though."

Perri, Edge, and Bec were silent.

"You know what? I think I'll get off at the next stop, walk back and talk to her…sort things out."

Bec sighed. "Yeah, that might be a good idea. She doesn't exactly know where she is anyway."

I wish I knew what was going on in Fly's mind. Did I do something wrong? Say something wrong? There was only one way to find out.

At the nextbus stop which was only about ten minutes down the road, I got off and began walking back. I ignored the fact I had no mobile and no cash. All I could think about was Fly and why she was acting so strangely.

When I made it back to the stop, Fly wasn't there. I sighed and scanned the bus schedule tacked to a pole for the time of the next bus, knowing Anna would kill us if we weren't back on time. My eyes found Saturday and dropped down the list of times until the last one. 4:00, the one we went on. _Oh shit,_ I thought.

"Heath!" came Fly's angry voice from behind me. "What are you doing?"

I spun around. "What are you doing?" I asked her, trying to imitate the tone she had used with me.

"You walked back here from the next stop, didn't you?"

I didn't respond, but continued scanning the schedule, hoping I made a mistake.

"I don't believe this! I'm not a child. Am I allowed to catch a bus on my own? No. I need a babysitter to hold my hand in case I-"

"Fly!" I said, cutting her off. "Would you calm down?"

"No!" she yelled. "I-"

"Fly!" I said again, rolling my eyes. "Could you just listen to me for two seconds?"

She rolled her eyes.

"There's no 5:00 bus on Saturdays; or a 6:00 one."

She shrugged. "We'll catch the 7:00 one."

"7:00 tomorrow morning." I said, keeping my voice monotonous.

Fly made a face. "Really?"

I nodded.

She threw her board to the ground and sat down next to it. I sat down too.

"What's up with you today, Fly?"

"Nothing!" she said defensively. "I just-wasn't ready to leave yet."

Fly was a terrible liar. "Fly."

She didn't look at me. We sat in silence for a few minutes. Thunder crashed in the distance, and in the blink of an eye, rain drops fell from the sky harder and harder by the minute. Fly shot me a look, a could-this-get-any-worse look and we ran down the grassy hill to a shack on the beach.

Sheltered under the wooden roof, I watched the pouring rain make ripples in the ocean. "So, what would the grown up girl have done now?" I asked her, "no mobile, no money, nothing but a board." I knew I should have stopped there, but I didn't. "You say you're not a child but you run off, don't tell anyone where you're going, and expect everything to be okay."

"I would have been fine. I would have taken the time to collect my thoughts and then worked out a plan, which is what I'm going to do right now, if you don't mind."

I continued staring out at the rippling ocean.

"It's not like this change in the weather was my fault," she murmured.

_A drop in the ocean, a change in the weather,_ the familiar line ran through my head. For a second I pondered the words. How did I know that song? It certainly wasn't a Catalyst song. Then it came to me; _a drop in the ocean, a change in the weather. _It was that song Anna played over and over. I could always count on hearing that song on repeat when I hung out in Fly and Anna's room.

My eyes wandered the drenched terrain until I spotted something on top of the hill. "Fly, I think I have a plan." I ran out of our shelter, into the pouring rain.

Fly watched me run up the hill to an old white caravan abandoned on top of the hill. "Heath, that's crazy!"

I opened the door and stuck my head inside, looking around at the dank looking caravan. I turned to Fly. "Luxury awaits, my lady!"

She winced. "It's like trespassing. We could get into trouble!"

"We're miles away from home, nowhere to sleep, no way of letting anyone know where we are; we're already in trouble! So, until it stops raining and we can get a lift…this is it!"

Her frown tightened into a straight line, and I saw she was pondering the idea. Finally, she gave up and ran into the rain.

"Well, we've got Vegemite, some olives, and…I think this is peanut butter but I'm not too sure. Not sure if it's edible." I tried to lighten the situation. I mean, what was to lighten? We were trapped in the middle of nowhere with no way of getting home, stuck in an abandoned caravan in the pouring rain.

Fly didn't respond.

I took a deep breath. "Fly, are you going to tell me what's up?"

Again, she didn't respond.

I continued, ignoring her silence. "because up until yesterday I thought we were mates."

"Mates, we're mates. We are definitely mates." She said, a bit too quickly and nervously.

"Why are you acting like such a psycho then?"

"I don't know," she sighed. "I feel like everyone treats me like the baby; like the little sister."

"I didn't stay back to wait for you because I think you're a baby," I started, hoping it was a hint.

"You're not getting it." She stared at the floor. "No one treats Perri the way they treat me because, they don't think of us the same way."

I started to understand. "Fly, you and Perri are different people. It's not because we think Perri's any better."

She looked up at me.

"Look, I stayed back to wait for you because you'd been so weird with me. I thought that if I spend some time with you you'd tell me what's up and we could sort things out."

"It's no big deal, don't worry about it." She took up the defensive tone again.

"I'm not worried," I retorted.

"Yes you are," she said, sitting down on the dusty old couch. "You're just trying to make me feel better.

I didn't know what to say. Yes, I was trying to make her feel better, but not because I thought she was little and immature. I guess she didn't know how I felt about her. I didn't think of her like everyone else thought of her; the sweet, little sister.

"Fly," I managed to sputter, after racking my brain for something to say. "I don't think of you in a sisterly way."

Fly lifted her head up off her hands and raised her eyebrows. "I'm not sure what that means."

_Come on, Fly. You're making this harder than it needs to be, _I said to myself. "Think about it." Sitting beside her on the couch, I looked into her green eyes. "If you're so grown up, maybe you can read between the lines."

She looked into my eyes too, and as I inched my face closer to hers, I noticed her doing the same. When our lips met for a few brief seconds, my stomach felt like it was filled with butterflies, and I felt like I was a little boy again, chasing after the girls in my kindergarten class. The best part was that her lips were moving with mine; she was kissing me back!

Suddenly, Fly pulled away and jumped up. "That was definitely not meant to happen."

I hid my disappointment as I watched her walk away and fiddle with her board bag. "Fly, what are you doing?"

"I'm just getting my board bag." She responded quickly, avoiding eye contact.

"I can see that, but I'm not sure as to why at this moment in time."

"Because you know what, I'm completely stuffed. I'm just going to get into my board bag and curl up on the floor."

I tried to suppress my smirk as I watched her scuffle across the floor in her bag. "You can take the bed." I said, and made my way to the couch. I lay there in the darkness, wondering what was going on in Fly's mind. I knew what was going on in mine; a swell of happiness and disappointment. Fly kissed me back, but had pulled away as well. Maybe I wasn't the reason she pulled away. Maybe I was. Did she just want to be friends? The questions burned my brain, and I tried to push them away. Finally, I drifted to sleep, and I could still feel our kiss on my lips.

"Heath, Heath!" Fly shook me awake from a dream I hoped had been about her, as I played the moment we shared hours earlier over and over in my head.

"What?" I asked, sleepily.

"Someone hooked up the van, we're driving somewhere!"

I rushed to get up, but couldn't successfully move because I was tied inside my board bag. Fly panicked and tried to untie the chord. As the van took a sharp turn, we fell to the couch, Fly on top of me. "Damn it!" exclaimed Fly, fiddling with the chord, "Ha, got it."

I heaved a sigh of relief and climbed out of the bag. Fear swept over me. "Uh, try banging on the windows!"

The driver still didn't see us. We tried everything we could think of, and resorted to using a candle. Fly held it up to the back window, but a sudden turn of the caravan sent the candle flying out of her hand and the entire curtain caught on fire.

Fly backed up, eyes wide, and tripped over my foot, falling down to the ground beside me.

We felt the van underneath us swerve and come to a stop. As the flames leapt higher, the door of the caravan opened and a light shined in.

Fly froze.

A man appeared in the doorway.

"Uh, hi," I stuttered. "I know this looks bad, but…"

"Stay right where you are!" he commanded, and yelled to his companion to call the police.

I felt Fly shivering next to me.

"Fly," I started, wrapping my arm around her shoulders. "It's going to be fine, okay?"

She nodded, and stared forward.

I studied the floor. This was definitely not the birthday I intended Fly to have.

The cops brought us back to the academy, and feeling a bit humiliated stood in the doorway in front of our angry coaches and nervous flat mates.

Deb and Simmo were too preoccupied to give us a long lecture. Instead, they sent us to bed and left it for tomorrow, when we would make a statement to the police about the situation.

As the seven of us headed up the stairs, Fly and I exchanged glances that seemed to say, "Thank god we're alive."

Exhausted, I climbed into bed, eager to avoid any verbal with Matt and Edge. They didn't bother me. I couldn't help feeling responsible for what had happened; I had brought her to the beach. I came to get her instead of going to get help. I pressured her into the caravan. I kissed her, though I wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing, and I almost got us killed. Guilt panged my stomach, and I barely managed to get to sleep.

Waking up with a pang of guilt in your stomach is not a terrific way to start a morning; particularly a morning when you had a date with the police. Hoping to wash the feeling away, I took a long hot shower. How many times had I replayed yesterday in my head? I'd lost count, particularly for a certain part that took place in the caravan. I met Fly, Deb and Simmo in the kitchen, and we headed for the police station.

Fly was the first to speak. I sat there silently, but listened intently as she explained to the officer that the entire thing had been her fault; the party, Anna asking Simmo to bend the rules, and missing the bus.

"I'm not sure how this is relevant to the caravan," began the officer.

"Believe me, I wish it wasn't, but it is." Fly said. "I missed the bus because…I had this dream…this stupid dream where Heath kissed me."

I froze, taking in what she had said.

She went onto explain that the dream was the reason she tried to avoid me all day, why she was acting so weird, and why she missed the bus.

I explained that we needed somewhere to go, and the caravan was the only thing around for miles, and that the fire was an accident.

After what seemed like hours of waiting, they let us go home. I couldn't stop thinking about what Fly had said about her dream, and couldn't help forming a few questions to ask her about it.

Thankfully, it was Sunday and nothing was required of us. Fly and I walked up the stairs and went our separate ways.

_Is that it?_ I asked myself. _Is that all that is going to happen between us?_ I couldn't know for sure, so after a few minutes, I walked down the hallway and knocked on the open door of Anna and Fly's room. "Fly, could I talk to your for a minute?"

"Yeah, sure," she smiled.

Anna cleared her throat. "I'll give you two some space," she said and walked out.

Awkwardly, I sat down next to Fly on the bed.

_A drop in the ocean, a change in the weather,_ sang the music from Anna's stereo in the corner of the room.

"I wanted to say I'm sorry for the way things worked out. I take full responsibility for your ruined birthday, and I intend to make it up to you."

Fly laughed. "Heath, you didn't ruin it. I was the one who missed the bus. It was my fault."

"Well, at least I know why you were acting so weird with me."

She blushed. "Yeah, about that…"

"I was wondering," I said with a smile on my face. "Was the kiss as good in real life as it was in the dream?"

She bit her lip. "It was pretty close."

I smiled. "So not only are you an excellent dreamer, but I am an excellent kisser."

"Or it could mean I don't know any better, having no experience and all."

"Well, take it from me; you have a promising career ahead of you…when you're ready."

She looked down.

"…providing you feel the same way…" I trailed off.

"I-" She looked me in the eye. "I think I do feel the same way."

My heart was beating so fast it nearly jumped out of me. I nodded.

"But, I don't _know_ if I'm ready."

Ugh. I knew that was coming. But she had said she felt the same way, so there was still a great chance. "When you're ready," I repeated.

_A drop in the ocean, a change in the weather, I was praying that you and me might end up together,_ the voice from the stereo sang.

I snorted and stood up to leave.

"When I'm ready," She sighed and stood up beside me. "But until then, mates?"

I extended a hand, and she shook my hand jokingly.

I pulled her into a hug, "Mates." I responded.

_…It's like wishing for rain as I stand in the desert, but I'm holding you closer than most 'cause you are my heaven. A drop in the ocean, a change in the weather, I was praying that you and me might end up together._

"Well, that's a bit ironic." I muttered, still holding her.

Fly looked up at me. "What?"

I shook my head, "Nothing. Well, I'm gonna go get some sleep, so I'll see you later."

"Okay," Fly smiled the smile I knew and loved. "See you."

We continued smiling at each other.

_A drop in the ocean, a change in the weather, I was praying that you and me might end up together. It's like wishing for rain as I stand in the desert, but I'm holding you closer than most, 'cause you are my heaven. _

"Bye," I said again, and this time left the room. I stood in the hallway and sighed. Things had pulled quite the turn around. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep, so ran down to the beach and sat in the sand, overlooking the ocean.

_"I think I do feel the same way," _Fly had said. "_But I don't know if I'm ready._"

_I'll wait for you, Fly_, I thought, _because you are my drop in the ocean. _


End file.
